This invention relates generally to a device for smoking and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for smoking and drinking that enables a person to smoke a cigarette without exhausting any cigarette smoke into the ambient air and which also enables the person to selectively consume a beverage.
In recent years, smoking cigarettes in public places such as restaurants, airplanes, or even in vehicles with other passengers has become inconvenient, culturally unpopular, or even unlawful. Smoking in public places, workplaces, or even at sporting venues has been curtailed, regulated, or prohibited largely because of the dangers of second hand smoke. Smoking bans often require a smoker to excuse himself from friends, coworkers, or family and stand outside for a “smoke break” which is sometimes undesirable because of bad weather or sometimes results in missing important events.
Various devices have been proposed in the art for collecting smoke from a lit cigarette in a sealed container or filter so as to minimize or eliminate smoke from having negative effects on nearby persons and, in some cases, from even being perceived by other persons. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,539 is directed to a smoking apparatus that collects smoke exhaled into it while having the appearance of a traditional beverage container. In other words, persons in the proximity of the beverage container may be unaware that a cigarette is being smoked so long as the user carefully exhales into the clandestine cup.
Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, the existing devices are not useful for holding or dispensing an actual beverage. In other words, the smoking apparatus disclosed in the '539 patent does not include a structure for holding a beverage but rather just mimics the appearance of a beverage container. The '539 device, therefore, is not effective either to convince nearby people that an actual beverage is in the smoking device or to actually provide a beverage to the consumer.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a smoking and drinking apparatus that contains and dispenses a beverage as well as that enables a user to smoke without emitting any smoke into the ambient air. Further, it would be desirable to have a smoking and drinking apparatus in which a user may inhale air from a lit cigarette while the cigarette is concealed within the apparatus and then, to exhale the inhaled smoke back into the apparatus without being perceived to be smoking at all.